#10 Oxymoron

Throughout the story, the writer talks about Ted Lavender and his feelings on the war. Almost everytime a person would ask him how the war was that day, he would simply reply and say, "Mellow-a nice smooth war"(page 218). [or something of that context in other chapters] This is an oxymoron in a sense that war is not mellow or nice and especially war is not smooth. War is an act of fighting and killing. People die daily and from all sorts of causes. When Ted says war is mellow, they all know he is not being serious. However, by hearing those soothing words, it gives the men a feeling of relaxatioin. They would often make jokes about his false sayings but would go along with them. Ted talked this way because of all the tranquilizers he took. War is a scary place to go and the men found little ways that would help them focus and calm down. There is no just thing as a nice war-we all know that. But in a way, Ted almost made it seem possible.